CRM Can Keep Tabs on Your Website Effectiveness

If there’s one thing I think everybody who’s ever bought or sold anything in the 21st century can agree on, I think it would be that websites are perhaps the best invention ever, for consumers and vendors alike.

For customers, they can anonymously browse information about a prospective vendor; whether on the projector in the boardroom in front of the purchasing department, or snuggled up at home in their PJs, switching tabs between the company’s website and an exciting conversation on Facebook. It’s like a pamphlet or a brochure, only much more elaborate, much more interactive, and has an infinite reach; in the sense that showing it to people is a simple matter of saying “check out www.example.com”; and doesn’t involve the cumbersome hand-off that written or printed information would carry.

For vendors, they can passively pitch their product through a website, and really deliver what it is they have to say, on terms that are comfortable and agreeable for a prospective customer. It’s also at a much lower cost than many other forms of marketing.

There’s an old saying in marketing regarding knowing how effective your promotional efforts are, and that is “half of my advertising budget is wasted; the problem is, I don’t know which half!”

It’s exactly this obfuscation of efficiency that keeps the advertising industry up and running; much advertising is a real shot in the dark - and when you start to get an onslaught of leads, you’re not exactly sure which ad they came from. So you keep running all of them, for the sake of certainty, since you don’t want to inadvertently drop the one that’s producing results.

However, if you’re a small business, you probably don’t have the resources to be throwing money around at experimental advertising. Where your surplus dollars are best spent are on understanding your responses, and where they came from. In the case of getting a grip on what aspect of your website is getting the most attention, that’s just where a CRM can come into play.

Most CRM’s offer the functionality of an inquiry form. Let’s say you sell lawnmowers. Your website will probably have a few pages on it, such as “energy efficiency and lawnmowers”, “safety when using lawnmowers”, and “tax rebates available from green lawnmower purchases”.

All of these will interest someone looking to purchase a lawnmower. But if you’re looking to sell lawnmowers. You don’t want just interest. You want action. How will you know which page compelled someone to inquire about your lawnmowers and then purchase one?

The answer is, you can set up an infinite amount of inquiry forms; specific to each page of your website. That way, when you get an inquiry, you’ll know which page it came from. Based on this knowledge, you can glean further insight about what your customers are all about. Meaning, if you got more inquiries from the lawnmower safety page, your customers are likely interested in a safer lawnmower. Perhaps that means you should emphasize safety features in your next round of advertisements.

Or, if most came from the tax rebates page, then you know that you should tell your leads right away about those rebates; after all, it is free money for them, isn’t it?

The source of the lead will be part of that customer’s profile, even after they’ve become an account. Meaning that even if they’ve been with you for two or three years, you’ll see which page of your website they used to inquire. So, if they inquired from the lawnmower safety page, then you know as soon as you come out with an accessory that enhances lawnmower safety, it might be worth showing to them.

Remember, there is much customer data that is hidden as a matter of course. By being able to discover it, and keep it on file for your business to be able to make use of down the road, you give yourself a significant competitive advantage.

In my next article, I’m going to go over more specifics of inquiry forms, and how they can collect the data you need to get the highest and best use out of a lead that comes your way.

About the Author

Maxwell Arnold is a lifelong technology enthusiast and passionate follower of the telecom industry, with a focus on the UX (User Experience) aspect of any given technology. Email Maxwell at maxwell@maxwell.me.

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